'Bozo eruption' threatens Ontario Tories: Analyst

The backdrop: a business run by a jilted wannabe candidate who took a shot at Doug Ford’s “hypocrisy” on social media.

Missing: the outspoken candidate Ford hand-picked instead to run in London West, whom rivals say should have been yanked over inflammatory comments about women, Muslims and the gay community.

A tightly scripted announcement on health care spending, delivered at a private medical clinic with an oh-so brief chance for questions.

Ford did nothing to dispel the growing controversies distracting from his campaign as Ontario’s Progressive Conservative leader touched down Friday for the first time in the election campaign in London, part of a bedrock Tory region where the party rarely hits potholes.

But with the race entering a critical phase, with less than three weeks to go and voters likely to start paying closer attention after the coming long weekend, Ford — weighed down by baggage over some of his candidates, including former broadcaster Andrew Lawton in London West — can’t afford any more campaign gaffes or negative headlines, a veteran observer warned.

“They cannot afford to be seen as sloppy. The Conservatives can’t afford to have any more problems. It’s raising uncertainty,” Peter Woolstencroft, a retired political scientist from the University of Waterloo, and longtime Queen’s Park-watcher, said of Ford’s candidate and fundraising controversies.

Ford entered the election campaign with early polls suggesting he’s the one to beat as the PCs try to snap 15 years of Liberal rule and fend off Andrea Horwath’s resurgent New Democrats.

Since then, intemperate past comments by three candidates including Lawton have surfaced — with critics suggesting they weren’t properly vetted by the Tories — and this week another candidate in the Toronto area abruptly resigned amid a police probe into allegations of data theft from Hwy. 407 customers.

“There is a cumulative effect, and we don’t know how to measure this. But at a certain point the negative news overwhelms the messaging,” said Woolstencroft.

Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford was in London on Friday for a campaign stop with London candidates Susan Truppe of London North Centre and Eric Weniger of London-Fanshawe. (MIKE HENSEN, The London Free Press)

Ford’s backdrop Friday was Advanced Medical Group, a private medical clinic in London whose executive director sought the Tory nomination in London West and recently took a shot at Ford on social media.

Liz Snelgrove, who was passed over for the candidacy when Ford hand-picked Lawton, tweeted about Ford’s “hypocrisy” in standing behind his candidate despite sacking Mississauga PC candidate Tanya Granic Allen for homophobic remarks.

“There goes the people of London West to Peggy Sattler,” she wrote on Twitter on Monday, in response to an article about Ford showing his smarts by ousting Granic Allen.

Sattler won London West for the NDP in a 2013 byelection, was re-elected in 2014 and is running again.

Asked Friday about her earlier tweet, Snelgrove said she is “supportive of Mr. Ford,” but admitted she was upset by the unilateral appointment in London West.

“I was disappointed with the process but I’m a staunch PC and I’m willing to give Andrew the benefit of the doubt and to allow him to prove to me and the rest of the people in London West that he deserves our support,” Snelgrove said. “I remain staunchly PC and supportive of Mr. Ford.”

Woolstencroft said the social media remarks were akin to “putting gasoline on the fire.”

Andrew Lawton is not at today's announcement and Ford is refusing local media questions here in #LdnOnt.

I should be clear – when pressed, Ford took a local question at the end of #LdnOnt presser. CBC reporter asked about supervised consumption sites, which Ford has said he is “dead set” against. Two are proposed for London. Ford said he’ll consult the experts.

Recent questions about the ethics of PC candidates have slid Ford’s campaign off-track, he said, pointing to Lawton’s controversial remarks on-air and on social media, and Brampton East candidate Simmer Sandhu, who Wednesday bowed out of the race after a probe was announced into a data breach of 60,000 Hwy. 407 customers at his former workplace.

In Kanata-Carleton, PC candidate Merrilee Fullerton came under fire for social media comments deemed Islamophobic.

But Ford’s numbers in recent opinion surveys don’t seem to be suffering, with the PCs remaining well in front of the second-place NDP and the far-behind Liberals.

In the last legislature, the Tories held seven of the London region’s 10 seats, the NDP two and the Liberals one.

Sattler questioned Ford’s decision to make Friday’s announcement — repeating a pledge to open 30,000 new long-term care beds in the next 10 years, and to invest $1.9 billion in mental health supports over the same period — at a private health clinic.

“Is Doug Ford trying to distance himself from these candidates now? Why is he not willing to stand next to Andrew Lawton anymore?”

Lawton was canvassing in the riding, saying his priority is door-knocking with only 20 days to go before the election.

Both Lawton and a party spokesperson refused to say whether Lawton was asked not to attend Friday’s event.

The two London candidates who did flank Doug Ford — Susan Truppe, gunning for a seat in London North Centre, and Eric Weniger, making a bid for London-Fanshawe — said they haven’t heard much from voters about the Lawton controversy.

“I don’t think it’s a concern. I’m not in that riding, but I’m not hearing much in my riding,” Truppe, a former Conservative MP, said later.

Lawton has said struggles with mental illness were responsible for the offensive comments he made on social media, saying he was “reckless in almost all areas of my life” between 2005 and 2013 when those mental health challenges were at their peak.

But the Liberals allege his outspoken remarks continued past then.

Weniger said he’s been so busy trying to build support, he hasn’t devoted much time to the issue or whether Ford should have picked a new candidate, as former deputy premier Deb Matthews of London — chairing the provincewide Liberal campaign — challenged him to do this week.

But with time before the June 7 election rapidly dwindling, Ford has to guard against what Woolstencroft calls “a bozo eruption” that could cripple the PCs.

“People hear all the stuff about strange things candidates are saying and doing, and that becomes the talk over the proverbial water cooler,” he said.

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